Turbo Charge
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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The intro shows us Iraqi terrorists breaking into an U.N. military camp escaping with the stockpile. Now it's the turn of the British agents Agaippa and Dausus to catch the terrorists and secure the stockpile.

This is a classical "Drive & Shoot" game. You are controlling a red sports car, driving down a narrow road, shooting every car on the road while trying to avoid the enemy's gunfire and various obstacles on the road (The story tells us, it's a chase through hazardous countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Thailand, South Africa and more).

The difficulty increases from stage to stage. While in the first stages there is almost no hostile activity almost all cars will start shooting you on sight later in the game. Even worse, there are helicopters and jets going to attack you too. Various obstacles on the road will make it harder to keep the upper hand on the street. These obstacles range from cones, to mines and even rather large rocks. Finally there are various intersections where always one will lead into a dead end, causing your car to crash.

Trivia
The game was converted to the Amiga, but System 3 opted not to release it, as they felt it was not good enough.

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After browsing the review pages I noticed one of the standout titles from the later C64 era was missing its requisite review, so here goes. 

Clutching a copy of Zzap! in my sweaty hands, I remember drooling over screenshots of a forthcoming action racer by the name of Turbo Charge. Created by Chris Butler (coder behind Power Drift, Ghosts 'n Goblins and Commando) and the graphical legend Robin Levy (notably responsible for Armalyte and Last Ninja 3), it certainly looked the part. 

You play as a pair of tough customs agents, in hot pursuit of a terrorist by the name of Dominator. After discovering plans to steal from the world's weapon caches and begin 'Operation Underdog' bringing about world war, you set off across the Middle East in your sports car to dish out old fashioned instant justice (I ask you, really?). 

Turbo Charge would borrow liberally from the Chase HQ arcade machines, particularly its sequels and clones, introducing focus on weapons, rather than vehicular ramming. 

Click to zoom!


Published by System 3, it was due to be released on cartridge in 1990, featuring animated intro, cut scenes and boss battles. It looked set to reverse the idea the humble 64 was just not cut out for modern arcade racers, as amply demonstrated by the dreary Chase HQ and Cisco Heat conversions released around this time. 

If the magazines are to be believed, the concept of Turbo Charge came about after the release of Vendetta. Between certain segments of the isometric action, you drove a super-car, shooting and dodging your way to the next stage. The driving levels were fast and fun, with the characteristic System 3 polish. These were very well received and, with a few extra ingredients, would make a great stand-alone title. 

As sales of the C64GS were hugely underwhelming many software houses scaled back their cartridge ambitions. System 3 was no exception and sadly some of the planned features of Turbo Charge were dropped to allow the release of the game on tape and disk. Appearing in 1991, later than planned, the instruction book still refers to specific cartridge info, but I've never confirmed it ever appeared. The nicely animated intro and outro remain, but the cut scenes became nicely drawn stills instead. 

Click to zoom!

In your pursuit of the terrorists, your agent leans out of the window of your Lamborghini (which is not actually possible by the way) and shoots a handgun at your enemies and other innocent road users. Whilst your gun has unlimited ammo, the rocket launcher, all customs officers carry, has a limited supply of ammo to blast away the bosses and larger vehicles. 

As you get closer to the target of each level you will be bumped, shot at and chased by a host of trucks, police, helicopters and attack jets. Other roadside obstacles, such as mines and roadblocks slow you down or just destroy you. As the counter ticks down, you take on damage shown by both a percentage indicator and bullet holes which appear on the screen. To help you have a turbo, which uses a ridiculous amount of fuel, only practical if you successfully top up your car's supply by running over the bonus cans along the way. 

If that wasn't tricky enough, forks in the road appear, often in the middle of winding tunnels which, only after a few hard lessons, will you realise which is the correct turning to make. The challenge is certainly steep. 

To summarise, I had a blast with this one, back in the day and it still holds up well today. Graphically and sonically the game exudes quality. You can clearly see a lot of effort went into making everything zip along at high speeds with minimal, if any, flickering. Details such as muzzle flashes and the darkening of your car in the tunnels just screams class. It's addictive and easy to pick up. The controls are responsive and accessible. Difficulty is tough, but the game never really feels unfair. 

Not without a little controversy (aside from the slightly distasteful end sequence, which I won't spoil here), rumour has it, the musicians had real problems getting paid for their great tunes. I'm sure they thought twice of working with System 3 again on future titles. Reyn Ouwehand also discovered his music had been used in titles he had no knowledge of. As it happens, none of these guys would get a chance for more dealings with the publisher as Turbo Charge was perhaps the last full price System 3 release for the C64. 

I often use Turbo Charge as an example of just how to do a racing game right. It's fast and fun and has the right balance of driving and blasting. The shortcomings and quirks are easy to gloss over with such a quality, crafted title. I can highly recommend this game as a great taster of what might have been, had more cartridge releases appeared for our humble C64. 


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